Sunday, June 20, 2010

Swoop, swoop-eh-doop...

I made it out to open skate again last night (which worked out well since practice this evening was cancelled). I really wanted to work on transitions but I chickened out since I was the only derby person there (until Tank showed up later) and didn't want to be falling constantly all by myself.

I decided that I wanted to work on swoops... that graceful, lunging move that gets you from inside to outside or outside to inside lickety-split. I watch people like Roxie and PutUNya do them and they are so smooth and graceful with it. The look effortless while I mostly still feel like it's a weird contortion to turn that sharply. If I'm going to be a good blocker, I need to learn to be more mobile on the track I think swoops are a big part of that.

As I learned the last time we did a drill on these, turning your hips is the key. My hips, being cranky and arthritic, don't like to turn fluidly on my own. I probably looked ridiculous doing it but I found that moving my arms in the direction I want to turn, dancer-style, seemed to help. I still find swooping left easier than swooping right but by the end of my 2-hour session I was feeling ok with them.

I think this week is a blocking week which I am GREATLY looking forward to. League practice is Thursday and I'm hoping to show up early to work on transitions by myself off to the side before practice starts. I know that the endurance will come (crossovers do feel nearly second nature now) but there's a big ol' wall up between me and those turning toe stops that will allow me to scrimmage, hopefully by the end of the year!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Wiff TAH-DAH!

This is just to short post to say just how proud I am of my league, New Hampshire Roller Derby. Today we graduated from the WFTDA Apprentice Program and became a full member of the association.

This is the culmination of almost exactly three years of work on the part of many many women. This is a very exciting time for us and while I had very little part in the work that was done, and I'm not a "full" scrimmaging skater yet I can't say enough how happy this makes me.

CONGRATS NHRD! You earned it! :-D

See the full press release from WFTDA HERE.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Crashing Teen Night

It's amazing how well a mass of half-dressed teenagers can put things in perspective for you. My very first derby experience was on a teen night. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the throngs of kids speeding around me. I felt so slow and clumsy.

Tonight felt completely different. While I didn't exactly dance through the crowds I definitely weaved my way in and out of groups of girls texting-whilst-skating and boys punching each other in the shoulders. I used my fairly newfound dodging skills to avoid crushing some girls who appeared suddenly in front of me from nowhere. I wasn't the fastest but I certainly wasn't the slowest. I didn't have the grace of many of the skaters on the league but I didn't feel clumsy.

I plied the three other people in the rink who were over the age of 30 with season schedule cards and even participated in the ladies speed skate (which consisted of a handful of us sprinting and a bunch of girls moseying along). It was interesting to get a sense of how much has changed since my first time out on my own skates at recruitment night :-)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Focus on the positive

I've decided that too many of my blog posts sound like rants. Talking about how my hip hurts, or how I'm not losing any weight doesn't make it get any better. I'm going to try to avoid dwelling on the things that went wrong during a practice (see previous post) and try to focus on what went well during practice instead. This means that some nights I may have a short post but we'll see how things go...

Tonight's practice was at JFK. It felt like my first time there in ages. The floor was ridiculous. It's highly polished concrete that, during the off-season, becomes a hockey rink. It's usually pretty slick but my 88A Radar Flat Outs are generally OK. Tonight was crazy.... I felt like I was sliding even on the straightaways! There must be a way to use the slide to some sort of advantage, like in rally car driving!

We did a double pyramid drill tonight that I did probably 90% of. The 10% I was out was not due to a physical issue directly, rather it was a "wardrobe malfunction". I laced my skates too tight and was having foot issues so I quickly took them off, stretched my feet out, and got back on the track. We went up to five laps and back down, doing calisthenics in the middle in between; then switched directions and went up to five and back down again. Considering I completed my first ever pyramid just last week I am pleased that I did as much of this one as I did.

We also did a weaving pace line drill. It's interesting that pace lines use to be the bane of my existence. I couldn't do them to save my life. Now I don't even really think about them. Granted, I put myself in the slow line but with the other vets in that line I don't know that there's any shame in that. I was at the front of the line which meant that I did my weaves last. I made it through the whole line, trying to be a good communicator (thank you Gladiator mouth guard!), and still had enough juice to do my weaves too.

The last thing that I don't think I did great as compared to the rest of the league but it was personal improvement for me was moving from side to side across the track using "mini-crossovers". We did a brief drill where we had to skate the length of the straightaway moving quickly from inside to outside. I want to work on that more next time I'm at Roller Kingdom on a more stable surface - I hope it's agility week next week - my fave!

June is full of promotional events and I'll be spending all day Saturday hanging out at the Gilford liquor store with Maully O and Miss Chiff - hopefully I'll be able to glean some good derby pointers from them while I'm there!

Monday, June 7, 2010

If it's not one thing...

Last night was a rough practice for me. Even though I was there for all four hours and on skates for most of the non-scrimmage time it felt like it was a couple of steps backward for me.

My first issue last night was that I didn't properly hydrate before practice. This should have been the first thing on my mind with all the hot, humid weather we've been having. I was ok when I started skating but by the end of a 16-minute push/pull drill I was feeling dizzy and shaky. I tried to do a couple more drills but was getting so dizzy that I needed to sit down and drink water.

While the dizziness started to go away as I drank my brain switched focus to the other major issue I had list night - my arthritic hips. They really haven't been an issue thus far, other than on the odd occasion, but I think that the hot, humid summer weather is making them flare up. After practice last Tuesday I could barely hobble around the office at work.

I acquired this lovely ailment during my time in the Army National Guard. I developed a major stress-fracture on the right side of my pelvis which wasn't diagnosed or treated until I had been doing hard labor on it for six-week it had progressed to the point that I could no longer stand up (fortunately during the last week of basic training).

After three months of recovery time I was allowed to finish training but the months of compensating for the pain/injury caused issues in my left hip. From that point on, any time I ran, did lots of walking, or other hihg-impact activities I get a lot of hip pain and it's worse if it's humid.

Was back when the arthritis and bursitis was first diagnosed I was given some samples of the anti-inflammatory Bextra, which has since been pulled off the market. I could take it on an as-needed basis and it worked beautifully. I think it's time to get myself back to the doctor to have it checked out again.

Everything in derby uses your hips and while I don't want to do permanent damage to myself I am not willing to give up on this crazy sport. I just need to find a way to manage the inflammation when it gets bad (which is not all the time).

I guess I just feel like if it's not one thing it's another at this point. I had a lot of back pain early on (which has greatly improved). Then I had the whole arch pain/skate issue (which has now been resolved). Now it's my hips. While I am confident that this is all manageable, I'm just frustrated that there are more hurdles to jump in my derby progression.

Lots of people offered encouragement last night which helped get me through some tough spots. Thanks to some ibuprofen from Slam I think my hips are much less sore than they otherwise would have been.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

WTB endurance plx

Tonight's practice kicked my butt. It was one of those soaked-braids kind of practices. Even now taking a deep breath feels... weird. It was endurance night - practice focus is harder to keep track of now that we're moving around so much.

It probably didn't look like much to the casual observer but I'm pretty proud of myself tonight. It wasn't pretty but I did every drill for the entire duration and skated on the actual track the entire time. I thought I was going to die at some points, but I did it - including the pyramid drill which I've never completed before. I thought I did ok with replacement blocking with Hollywood, Vinnie, and Vixen.

Although it was a positive night for me, it became even more apparent that I have no endurance.  I don't always have the ability to get out and skate in the evenings so I'm trying to decide whether using an elliptical machine (lovingly referred to as the "elliptiwotsit" by Mr. Carnate) or my recumbent bike will have a greater effect.

The one thing that wasn't so good tonight that I may go see a doctor about again was my hip. Between walking in the parade on Monday and the big change in humidity today my left hip was killing me from the time I woke up this morning. Tylenol arthritis didn't even touch it. It made maintaining a low derby position challenging.

We also did a suicide drill where we sprint and do baseball slides at each end for two minutes. Hauling my fat arse up off the ground was very difficult by the end. I don't know if there is any way to strengthen those "getting up" muscles besides practicing getting up but I'm going to look into it. Dropping 75 pounds wouldn't hurt either. ;-)

I put my tuners back on for Roller Kingdom and SNHU this weekend... I notice the difference between those and my flat outs a lot more now than I did when I first switched over. I felt much faster tonight as compared to using my flat outs. I need all the help I can get!